Home
by Anybodysdaughter
Summary: Gibbs gets an unexpected call from Ziva and everything starts changing. Set during/after Honor Thy Father (semi AU)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.**

It was a damn good thing he brought that bottle of bourbon with him to Stillwater.

He didn't know what else to do. Leon practically forced him out the door for a few days, knowing full well he would want to be at work with his team. But there was work to do in Stillwater too; funeral arrangements and the like, but mostly, selling the store. That would be the most difficult part.

Being Gibbs, he didn't want to confide in anybody. Work through it, and yeah, probably drink through it, and build something, keep his hands busy forever, so he'd never have to feel again.

Ahh, dammit, who was he kidding, he needed to talk. To a woman. Back in the day, it would've been Jen, but she was gone. Whatever, maybe he'd just talk to himself and imagine her responses. It wouldn't have been the first time.

His phone rings, blocked number. Blocked numbers meant bad news but the way he thought about it, why reject it and wait for it to catch up with him?

"Hello," he said gruffly.

"Gibbs," answered a cool voice that sounded just a little too familiar.

"Ziver?" he replied, glancing over at the bourbon. Just how much of that stuff did he drink? Static-filled silence met his ear, and just as he was about to hang up, he heard her voice again.

"Gibbs, I- I missed you so much. So, so much." Her voice was thick with emotion.

Now it's his turn to be silent. What do you say to someone who left for year to take care of their problems alone? He figured she had a reason for calling, so he remained silent and took another long swig of bourbon.

"You were the closest thing I ever had to a father," Ziva's voice continued, "and I walked away. Again. I know that I meant this to be for you, to honor you, but I didn't consider, even in the phone call, that maybe you would not like what I was doing."

Damn, this bourbon was making him emotional too. He made a mental note to get rid of it after this conversation.

"Don't apologize, David," he brought himself to say, sounding a little like her boss again in his efforts to stay calm. "You did what you had to do. What I would have done."

He could almost picture her smiling into the phone at his response; God he missed her. He missed his old team back together, working cohesively and dysfunctionally and giving him so much to smile about. Bishop was great and all, but she had a life, a family outside of her work family. Gibbs couldn't pretend to be her father like he could with Kate, with Ziva.

"I didn't know what to do at first, how best to get rid of the old me" Ziva's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "I wandered for a while, but then I realized that that is what I had done before, when-" She broke off and took a quick breath. "So, I settled down. I found a nice village and I have been working with children in schools in the area."

"I built up a group of friends and acquaintances, and I have enjoyed my time here. But I am lonely, despite all the people I met and everything I did. I just wanted- I - I want to come home, Gibbs. I need to come home."

So many thoughts ran through his head. Home. Here? On the team? No, she gave up the badge. Doing what? Teaching? Does it matter? She's coming home. With the rest of us. My family'll be whole.

When his voice started working again, he said weakly, "You can stay at my place for a couple days while you find a place."

"Gibbs... Thank you. Thank you so much," Ziva breathed into the phone.

"I, uh, gotta favor to ask you, Ziver. Before you hang up."

"What is it?"

He took a shaky breath before talking. "How early are you planning on getting here? And, uh, could you, uh, stop by Stillwater when you get in?"

He had never sounded so unsure of himself, and Ziva picked up on it right away. "Gibbs, what's wrong? What has happened?"

"Jack- Dad- he had a stroke. He didn't make it. Happened yesterday, funeral's day after tomorrow."

"Oh, Gibbs. I'm so sorry. And, I'll be there Gibbs. I'll make it to the funeral. I will." There was a pause, and then- "Do you want to talk about it?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, I do. I just wish I could've been there. To comfort him, tell him I loved him, just make sure he knew that. He was a good guy, ya know? He really took care of [assistant's name], and he loved that store. He poured his whole soul into that store. He loved everyone in this town, even if they didn't love him back." He couldn't speak for a moment; his throat had closed up and there were tears in his eyes.

Ziva took the moment to offer her memories of Jack. "I remember the first time I met him..." but Gibbs wasn't paying any attention. He was thinking of the pilot who saved his dad's life, and how much that had meant to his dad to pay a visit to this dying man. All the times his dad had stepped out for someone else. How he called his mom Chickadee, and they'd built a boat together, and how much he'd loved Shannon and Kelly.

He had the vague sensation that he had cut her off when his voice came back and he started thinking out loud again. "I've lost too many people. Mom, Shannon, Kelly, Jen, Dad. I don't want to lose anyone else. I don't want to. I don't want to. I need my family to be nearby now; I can't afford to lose you guys too. I need you to be close."

"O-Okay, Gibbs. I'll stay close."

"And the others- DiNozzo, McGee, Abby, Ducky."

Ziva probably thought he was going crazy, but he just needed reassurance. When Jenny died, Leon had scattered the team, and he couldn't have that again.

He could hear movement in the background, dishes clinking and paper being crumpled and folded. It took him back...

_"You haven't packed a single thing," the realtor commented, moving into the kitchen and picking up a plate. "You know you have to get out of this house by Tuesday, right?" She must have seen the look on his face because she sighed, and offered to help him. _

_He slouched down into a kitchen chair, head in his hands as the realtor (Charlotte, was it? She was Joann's friend or something like that) started wrapping the dishes in brown paper and placing them in a box with a slight clink. Next it was the cups, the wine glasses, the mugs..._

"Gibbs? Are you there?" Ziva's voice pulled him back out of the past, and he shook his head to clear it.

"David, what's going on over there?"

"Oh, I am just packing. Is it distracting to you?"

"No, no, it's fine. Reminds me of a time I was moving out of my first house, when... But I should let you go."

They said their goodbyes, and Gibbs finished his glass of bourbon quickly, a celebratory drink he told himself all fathers partake when their daughters come home.


	2. Chapter 2

Ziva stepped off the elevator and suddenly Abby was standing in front of her.

"Hi, Abby."

Abby pulled her arm and practically dragged her around the corner. Confused and caught off guard, Ziva allowed herself to be pulled away from the bullpen.

"What were you _thinking_, leaving us like that? Do you know how much we all _missed_ you? Why did you even bother coming back? There's nothing for you here anymore, we replaced you when we realized how _stupid_ you were being." It was a terrible argument, but Ziva had never seen Abby this angry so she wasn't about to question it. This was even worse than when Abby berated her for doubting Tony a couple of years ago.

When Abby was done, it was obviously everyone else's turn. McGee, Tony, Ducky, Palmer all crowded her, asking the same questions and wasting no time breaking her heart.

"What are you doing here? You don't belong here anymore." She could read between the lines easily enough. They wanted her to leave and never come back. Her visitor's pass was getting heavier by the second, dragging her down, down; she was at Tony's apartment, at his front door, and he was staring at her, accusing her of leaving him alone.

"Why did you even bother, Ziva? You knew I'd be mad at you; there's no chance of us together now." Tony opened the door further to reveal a pretty blonde girl in a low-cut dress grinning and waving at her maliciously. At this moment the floor jolted (earthquake?), and Ziva fell on top of Tony. It was such a reminder of the past, '_that's not my knee,'_ she wanted to stay there forever, but his new girlfriend was shaking her shoulder, and kept insisting she get up and leave.

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Ziva awoke with a start, the woman sitting next to her shaking her shoulder and talking to her.

"Ziva, we have arrived. We are in the United States! You need to get up, you need to leave as quickly as possible, or you'll be late for your family!"

Ziva was still very upset by her dream, but she tried to be encouraging to the woman. She was very nice and had been a comforting presence as Ziva talked about the family that she was so excited to see again. "This is going to be great for you, Malka, you're going to love it here," she managed to say as she stood up and walked off the plane.

Ziva grabbed her luggage as quickly as possible, directed Malka to a cab, and gave her a piece of paper with her phone number on it. "If you need anything, I'm just a phone call away."

She hailed a cab to take her to Stillwater, and practically threw her luggage in the trunk. "I need to get there as fast as possible," she told the driver. She had chosen a long black dress to wear on the plane, specifically for this reason. In her carry-on was a black wide-brimmed hat that she would use to hide her face from her friends.

The cabbie was a quiet man, not one of the talkative drivers that she was used to in DC. This was a nice change, though, because it allowed her some time to think. Was this really the right thing to do, moving here, or was she just thinking about what was best for herself? Well, maybe she should have talked about it more with Gibbs, actually asked his opinion. If he didn't think it was a good idea, she would just hop back on the plane and go somewhere else. Where, she would deal with later.

Her thoughts turned to Jackson Gibbs. He was such a nice man. She could remember all the times when they'd seen him when they were working on a case...when she was an agent. No, she would think of all the times Gibbs got mad at him for normal old-people things- forgetting the oven was on, making Gibbs help out at the store. Redoing the car for Gibbs when he came home. She had rarely seen Gibbs so happy as when he rounded the corner and whipped past her and McGee in that car.

She couldn't help it, her thoughts floated to work- her old work- and the team. She wondered how they were doing. She figured McGee and Abby were pretty much how they were before, stuck in the cycle of working on case after case. And there was probably a new member of the team, most likely a girl. She wondered if this girl was pretty, and how much she flirted with Tony.

Tony. She wondered about him most of all. And worried. She hoped he hadn't been stuck in the past, that he had found some way to move on from her. He always had a hard time moving on, he had turned to drinking after Jenny died, and she wished he hadn't repeated that part of his life. And part of her,she didn't want to think how big, hoped that he still loved her, because she still loved him. But she knew that they would have to start up from the beginning again, take it slow. Ach, why was she even thinking about this? Why would he still be in love with her? After she pushed him away for the hundredth time? And yet- they had made so much progress the year before, before her father died, before they had resigned, before she decided to get away from it all. They could get back to that point. But it would take a lot of work on both of their parts. She looked out the window and refused to acknowledge any further thoughts she might have had regarding their relationship. Maybe if she stared hard enough, the image of passing trees would fill up her brain, and she would not have to think for the rest of the trip.

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She was late, of course. She approached from behind the team, and hid in expertly with the other mourners, not even turning her head to look at her friends. There was a time and a place for her to show up, and although she didn't have a plan of where or when, it definitely wasn't here and now.

They were just folding up the American flag, and handing it to Gibbs to keep. This was close to the end of the ceremony, if Ziva remembered correctly. Yes, the bugle was played, and then everyone walked by Jackson's grave another time before solemnly climbing in their cars to go home. There was sometimes food afterwards, but she doubted Gibbs had done anything about that, probably eager to be alone after this.

Gibbs was, as expected, the last to leave, and Ziva stayed until everyone else had cleared out. She stepped forward, and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned, gave her a slight smile, and hugged her. "Glad you could make it, Ziver."

**A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter! **


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